A month ago, The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund urged Congress to pass H.R. 5092. This bill would provide law enforcement with the tools they need to immediately crack down on animal cruelty “crush” videos. If you're like me, you don't have a clue about what a “crush” video is. Let me just say there's a lot of depravity in our world. A crush video depicts the intentional crushing, burning, drowning and impaling of puppies, kittens and other animals for one purpose…the disgusting titillation of some twisted people who will pay for those videos.
Back in 1999, President Clinton's administration passed the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act which pretty much eliminated the sale of the videos, but that Act was ruled unconstitutional in 2008. Since then, the videos have reappeared and are now widely available for sale on the internet.
A day before H.R. 5092 was introduced in Congress, the Supreme Court ruled that the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act was too broad, and might involve some depictions that are protected by the First Amendment. That ruling led the sponsors of H.R. 5092 to immediately present it as a specific, targeted bill.
What can you do if you're as horrified as I am about this issue? Encourage your representatives to support it! Now that we know about this, we can't pretend that it doesn't exist. Passing this bill is a no-brainer!
For more information, check out the Humane Society of the United States‘ web site. You can see a list of the 50+ representatives who introduced the bill. A good place to start is to thank them!
Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I could make a strong argument for the fact that we should celebrate animal moms too. You know I'll take any excuse at all to talk about animals, especially babies! Here are some of the most adorable little babies you'll ever see!
Can you believe this little guy weighed just 6 pounds at birth? Einstein is a pinto stallion, and is said to be the smallest horse in the world. Be sure to watch the video to the end so you can see him try to buck. So cute I can't stand it!
These adorable lion cub triplets were just born January 27th at the Bronx Zoo. Can you guess their names?
They don't actually have names yet, but they need them, and you and I can help name them. Just go to the Bronx Zoo web site and cast your vote beginning May 16th. Now watch these adorable guys frolicking and playing, and just try not to smile! I want one!
If you have a favorite baby animal video, you know where to send it! Meanwhile, Happy Mother's Day to all you human moms, and animal moms too!
Have you had a good week? I hope so. As we cruise into the weekend, I wanted to send you off with a little fun, a little cuteness and a little joy. It's an animal video, of course.
I loved this video when I saw it the first time, and just as much when I saw it again today. I don't know what makes me happier: the sweet relationship between these two, or the infectious joyful attitude of the orangutan. See what you think. Oh, and have a most excellent weekend!
I hope you're all having a good week. I'm having a great week myself, but I have a nagging feeling that I can't seem to shake, and it's about the 27,000 exotic animals that the SPCA is taking care of. Last week, I told you about the largest animal rescue in US history that took place in Arlington about six weeks ago. Since then, the SPCA of Texas has been caring for 27,000 exotic animals who were neglected and abused.
I got an urgent email from the SPCA this week, which said that the “people” (I use that word loosely) who owned the company have appealed the judge's decision to confiscate the animals from them and award custody to the City of Arlington. Until that appeal is settled, the SPCA will continue to care for the animals, at a cost of $8,000-$10,000 per day. They are in desperate need of $150,000 ASAP!
If this situation touches your heart as it does mine, will you please consider making a donation to the SPCA? If I could do another bake sale tomorrow that would put a dent in this need, I would do it. But their need is much bigger than that. They need us all to come together for them, and contribute what we can. Thanks for considering helping these poor little critters!
BigSis added this note January 28 at 1:30 pm: I just found this great video on DallasNews.com, which shows some of the animals and gives you an idea of the lengths the SPCA is going to for these guys. Here's the link: http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/hp/index.html?nvid=412930
It's short, so please check it out. I'm in love with the Ring-Tailed Lemurs and the teensy turtles.
Last week, several of us who worked on the SPCA Bake Sale had the opportunity to tour the SPCA of Texas' new facility. We met the Chairman of the Board at our 2008 sale, and he offered us a tour but we never made the time to do it until our 2009 sale was behind us. We expected to see kitties and puppies, and were worried that we'd all leave with our arms full of furkids. What we didn't expect to see was a facility full of 27,000 exotic animals.
You might have heard about the largest animal rescue ever in US history. A PETA investigator went undercover for 7 months in an exotic animal store, US Global Exotics, who sold to pet stores and chains like Petco and Petsmart. After gathering evidence of the neglect and abuse going on there, the investigator blew the whistle on the business.
On December 15, 2009, Arlington Humane Services swooped into the facility with a seizure warrant, with assistance from the SPCA of Texas and the Humane Society of North Texas. It took these agencies over 14 hours to rescue the thousands of animals. Many were already dead or dying, including over 200 iguanas who had been packed up for a trip to Egypt and then were left for 2 weeks with no food or water when the order was canceled.
Three days prior to the seizure, the SPCA began preparing a facility to receive all of these stressed animals. You can read more about the incredible lengths they went to in this Examiner article.
What kind of animals are we talking about? Turtles, snakes, tarantulas, scorpions, geckos and iguanas and all kinds of lizards, crabs, hamsters, rats, frogs, mice, gerbils, ground squirrels, sugar gliders, ferrets, guinea pigs, flying squirrels, coatimundis, agoutis, chinchillas, prairie dogs, hedge hogs, mini possums, ring-tailed lemurs, sloths, wallabies, and kinkajous.
Here's SPCA of Texas President James Bias describing the situation in a local news video:
We were overwhelmed by the sheer number of animals we saw. Can you even begin to fathom what 27,000 exotic animals looks like? Then add to that the incredible variety of animals…over 500 species. Then imagine what all of those poor animals went through. It was really too much to comprehend. We were very grateful to have the chance to see all of these animals up close, but extremely sad that they were in this warehouse after this horrible experience, instead of roaming wild in their native habitat. At the same time we were thankful that the SPCA was taking such good care of them.
None of these animals will be available for adoption. They will be placed with accredited zoos, sanctuaries and rescue organizations.
So how can you help?
The SPCA of Texas is currently spending approximately $8,000 to $10,000 a day to provide proper nutrition and habitat for these creatures and it could take months before they are all safely placed. The cost of this rescue will be enormous. You can help by donating to the SPCA online at www.spca.org.
Volunteer if you're in the area. With so many involved in the care of the 27,000 exotics, volunteer assistance is needed now more than ever. For volunteer information, visit www.hsnt.org or www.spca.org.
Never ever buy an animal from a store! Adopt from a rescue group or shelter.
Thanks to PETA, SPCA of Texas, Humane Society of North Texas, the judge who awarded custody of these animals to the City of Arlington, and to all of the vets, workers, volunteers and everyone else involved in the rescue and care of these animals. God bless all of you!
We have one more little topic to wrap up for 2009 just as we fly into 2010…the SPCA Bake Sale results, of course! The sale was held for one day only on December 14th, and we thankfully sold every crumb we had! We also had a web site set up for donations from out-of-town folks, or for local friends who just couldn't make the sale.
So here are the results. Drum roll, please! The web site donations are $405, and the one-day sale of baked goodies brought in $3618. That makes our grand total so far $4023! Woo hoo!!
We are enormously grateful for the support of our friends, family, fellow tenants, our building's management, and an awesome SMU fraternity. Thank you so much for showing your love to the animals and to the SPCA of Texas in a huge way!We baked our fannies off, but without all of you, it would have been for nothing!
Here are some photos from the sale. You can get an idea of how much we started with, but what you can't see is that we have boxes and boxes of more goodies under the table! We sold it ALL!
Cakes and breads all lined up before the sale started at 8 am.
Bars and brownies are ready to be snatched up and gobbled up!
Cookies were all huddled together here.
All the treats were organized in happy little rows here.
Almond Toffee and Soft Peanut Brittle went into these cute little totes.
Cakes and breads were packaged in tall treat bags from PaperMart.
Brownies and other bars got these cute Treat Toppers from Hobby Lobby.
3 kinds of fudge were molded into shapes, and then decorated.
Cinnamon and Peanut Butter Fudge close-up.
Pretzels got a dip in chocolate, and then a swoosh and a drizzle of cuteness.
The cutest gift bags ever were donated by LilSis!
Thanks again to everyone! We can't wait until next year!
The 2009 SPCA Bake Sale is now history. We started setting up at 6 am, opened the doors at 8 am, and left the building at 6 pm. It was a long day, but it was incredible fun.
Our goal was to beat last year's donation of $3055. Our little team started baking 3 or 4 weeks ago, and we pulled out every trick in the hat to try to make our goodies irrestible to buyers. We emailed everyone we know, we sent out press releases, we lined up the most irresistible sample girls you could ever meet, and we talked about nothing but the SPCA and cookies for the last month. We decorated, packaged and labeled until we were loopy.
How did we do? I'm too fried to remember how to get pictures off my camera today, and we don't have a final total yet because donations are still coming in online. I'll just leave you with one little teaser for now. We are humbled and amazed and incredibly grateful. How much money do you think that 5 baking girls could raise in one day if their bake sale sold out? What if God showed up in a big way to answer their prayers? What could happen?
I'll come back later to tell you. If I come down off Cloud Nine long enough to type again.
It's finally here; the day we've been working toward and looking forward to since last year's sale that resulted in a $3,055 donation to the SPCA of Texas!
The baking and packaging is all done, and now all we can do is sell these goodies! Our goal is another $3000 for our favorite charity, and we pray pray pray that we make it! Our secret fantasy – not so secret now – is that we sell everything we've made! How incredible would that be!
If you're in the Dallas area, email me for directions at bigsis at bigsislilsis dot com. We'd love to see you!
If you're not in the area and you'd like to help these little furkids, you can donate at http://www.spca.org/goto/bakesale. If you use this url, the SPCA can see that your contribution came through our event, and we can send you a thank you!
Thanks for your support, your well wishes, and your prayers for a successful event today!
My little 20 pound Warren Bitey…what a funny cat he was. Lots of people thought he was mean, but he really wasn't. He was actually very sweet, but insecure and fearful, which he sometimes showed as aggression in scary situations. When he was a kitten, he was really a biter but we worked through that with the Tellington T-Touch.
He's been gone for a year and a half now, but I think about him a lot. We were buddies for almost 17 years, and I miss him. One of my favorite memories of Warrie was the Christmas when he was my Christmas card cover boy. No kitty could wear a Santa hat like Warrie. I need a kleenex now.
I've been talking about it for a while, but in case you haven't heard, our Bake Sale benefiting the SPCA of Texas is coming up on Monday. This Monday! Great googly moogly! So much to do in so little remaining time!
We want this to be the best sale we can possibly put together for the SPCA, and we're pretty much driving ourselves wacka-doodle-doo over it. That's what happens when a few OCD perfectionists come together on a project they're passionate about I guess, but we've created a really stressful week for ourselves.
Hissy-Fit Photo by Vaughan
I freaked out big-time yesterday and had a little hissy fit about some things that weren't going the way I wanted them to. By the end of a really long frustrating day, I was about to cry and decided to just go to bed and start fresh this morning.
I was thinking that bunches of us are hissy-fitting this time of year, not just me. I sometimes wish I could be more lackadaisical and nonchalant about things instead of giving myself an anxiety attack trying to get it all done. The challenge I think is how to arrive at a balance; how do you be more nonchalant and less compulsive without turning into a full-blown procrastinator who doesn't get things done? I have no idea since I'm not good at balance and moderation; I'm all or nothing about everything I do. When it comes to the bake sale and other things I care about, it's 100%-full-blown-all-I've-got.
How do you manage to achieve this kind of balance in your life? I really want to know. When I start melting down like this, all I know to do is try to slow my breathing down. It does seem to help. Also taking a minute to focus on what's really important helps a bit too. Am I freaking about something that even matters? Probably not. Am I making too much of this right now and overreacting? Probably so.
If you have any tips on this topic, please send them on. I betcha I'm not the only one doing the Hissy-Fit Freak right now!
~BigSis
